Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2008 December 30

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December 30

Obama Doll Gag gift

Any tips on how i can get an Obama doll out of the corner of a Claw vending machine using the claw?--76.28.73.16 (talk) 03:37, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

One toddler seemed to figure out the only way to get anything decent out of those machines...she crawled inside through the prize slot. They had to call the paramedics to rescue her, if "rescue" is the right word, since she was having a ball inside playing with all the good toys. StuRat (talk) 04:11, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

I heard that claw machines are designed so that the claws are weak most games then tighten up once every so many games. The way to test this is watch people use the claw machine until someone wins something then count the number of games until someone else wins. Then just count the number of games until you can win. --Candy-Panda (talk) 05:27, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

I wouldn't assume that it's a fixed interval, it's probably random. StuRat (talk) 05:48, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Claw machine toys are usually cheap trinkets. Google for it, I bet you can just buy it outright for less than it would take to try and get it with the claw. --98.217.8.46 (talk) 17:56, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Many, MANY years ago - my father made neon signs. He made a really nice one for an arcade on the beachfront at Margate - but the owner couldn't afford to pay for it. In recompense, he agreed to let my father run the arcade for thee months in the summer season and to take all of the profits. Hence (via a very complicated series of events) I ended up (as a 10 year old kid) being in charge of restocking the claw machine during my summer vacation. First, let me tell you that the 'prizes' in those machines cost less than the money you put into the machine for one play. It's AMAZING how cheap those crappy dolls and things actually are. So if everyone won a prize every time, the owner would still make a profit. Secondly, the owners invariable 'adjust' the spring tension in the claw so that they are not physically strong enough to lift the larger and more expensive prizes - so rule #1 is to always aim for something LIGHT. Rule #2 is that arcade owners almost always put very desirable - but very unobtainable things into the machine to attract people into trying to get them instead of the cheaper things. Since an Obama doll probably costs more than the other junk in the machine - the owner will have carefully placed that doll in a position where the claw cannot possibly get to it. In "our" arcade on Margate seafront, my father placed his own gold Rolex wristwatch into the machine - having first made very sure that it was smaller than the minimum gap between the teeth of the claw! After three months, it was still in there - and we probably made more than it was worth (which was a lot!) from the suckerscustomers who tried to get it out. Some owners have been known to surruptitiously glue valuable prizes to the bottom of the machines to achieve the same result. SteveBaker (talk) 00:06, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

How about if they grabbed the Rolex and a big plush doll in the same grasp ?

Were there any laws that governed such gambling machines ? Let's take an extreme case where every single prize was glued down. Would that have been legal ? StuRat (talk) 08:40, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

Finding a Finance Sector Job in Vancouver, BC

I will be moving to Vancouver shortly, and am looking for a job in Finance. Naturally, it's not the best time for this, but luckily the big Canadian banks were conservatively capitalized coming into this recession and haven't announced any layoffs yet.

My plan is to gather a list of firms, rank them by my desire to work with them, gather HR or Management contact information and politely harass them in the same order as I have ranked them. This worked well for my last job in Victoria, BC, but Vancouver is much bigger, and I want to make sure that my list of firms is exhaustive.

I am looking interested in the following order:

1) Private Equity or VC 2) Commercial Banking or Business Financial Services 3) Asset Management (Mutual Funds, Pension Funds, anything market oriented) 4) Corporate Treasury

I am working on my CFA designation, so I need a job that satisfies the requirement that I be "...making investment decisions or adding value to the process."

I plan on using the chamber of commerce site, local Venture Capital firm listings, and just doing general searches on job listing sites etc. I want to approach firms before they post jobs, when possible. Can anyone recommend other places where I could find lists and/or HR contact info for financial firms around Vancouver? Any specializations or search terms I'm overlooking? General Job-Seeking advice? Thanks! NByz (talk) 05:57, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

What is this......thing!?

It's like the drainpipe grew legs......I HOPE YOU GUYS CAN IDENTIFY - AND STOP THIS CRAZY THING!...(!).....God, I can't figure out what this is.--Mark L. Dowry (talk) 06:08, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

A photo might be nice. -- JackofOz (talk) 06:11, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

See thing. - Lisa4edit (talk) 07:13, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

How many legs? --Dr Dima (talk) 08:12, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Wild guess: House centipede? --98.217.8.46 (talk) 17:53, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks 98! I want some, they eat Cockroaches! What could be better? If they also eat moths I'll cancel our exterminator and get a couple of those guys instead. Does anyone know anything about their environmental impact in the US? Are they an animal form of kudzu? Lisa4edit (talk) 18:47, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Another wild guuess a shape shifting alien that'll destroy us all Dmcq (talk) 18:40, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

I'd go with a badger flusher. CambridgeBayWeather Have a gorilla 23:17, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

I'm worried now.Six days and we've heard nothing from him. Has it destroyed him completely? Well,I guess this has legs and we can't figure out what it is but it doesn't really resemble a drainpipe... Lemon martini (talk) 00:15, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

No need to worry, I'm okay (for now). It crawled back under the sink leaving behind a nice trail of goo for me to remember it by. It was like, a pipe shaped slug, hairy, with a wholebuncha legs! I went to touch it and I swear the damn thing spit at me! And this goo kinda stings. Sorry, I dont know how to upload pictures.--Mark L. Dowry (talk) 02:39, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

Player-managers

There was a time not that many years ago when player-managers were fairly common in English football, at least in the lower reaches of the league - but I can't remember the last time I heard of one. Are there any player-managers currently in charge of any English league clubs, and have there ever been any in the history of the Premier League? Thanks in advance, Grutness...wha? 09:08, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

I'm not sure of current player-managers but Chris Coleman managed Fulham as a player manager (EDIT - maybe he didn't - anyhoo check Player-manager it has a list of notable ones), and if I recall correctly so did Gianluca Vialli when he was at Chelsea 194.221.133.226 (talk) 11:23, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Glenn Hoddle at Chelsea and Bryan Robson at 'Boro? Heh, the way things are going at West Ham, Zola might end up having to pull his boots on again... --Kurt Shaped Box (talk) 11:38, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Gordon Strachan famously used his role as Coventry's player-manager to get around the 'manager can only give instructions from the technical area' rule by going for long and elaborate warm-up routines down the touchline whilst shouting at his players (and the linesman). Nanonic (talk) 12:36, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Peter Reid and Stuart Pearce (at Forest) were two others. Currently the only player-manager in the league is Barnet's Ian Hendon, but that's kind of cheating because he's a caretaker who was appointed on a temporary basis yesterday. I'd speculate that the reason for their decline is that Premier League rules stipulate that all managers must have a UEFA Pro Licence, a rule which was only introduced recently. Some countries do not permit player-managers at all, Italy is one of them, which is what made Vialli's time at Chelsea unusual. Oldelpaso (talk) 17:17, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Parts of Paul Tisdale's article seem to imply he is still registered as a player with the number 17 shirt, and he manages Exeter City. He has not played a match since 2000, however. --Iae (talk) 18:52, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

IIRC, Alan Curbishley was still registered as a player at Charlton for several seasons after he last made an appearance for them... --Kurt Shaped Box (talk) 21:20, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Roberto Martinez of Swansea City is still officially a player-manager as he has not yet officially "retired" from playing - however he is not listed on the squad listings for the team and therefore refered to simply as "manager" of the swans... He could however add his name to the squad list if he wanted and play... So that sort of fits i think... Gazhiley (talk) 10:53, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

About the pro-license. I am to understand that this is recommended but not required. From the looks of this (http://forums.cfcnet.co.uk/index.php?s=689ada1041157aed0e108f6fbfc318c4&showtopic=37553&st=0&p=639019&#entry639019) it seems that it is not until 2010 that managers coming into the Premier League are required to have the license. 194.221.133.226 (talk) 09:51, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

From [1] and [2], it seems that the rules already require it except for short term appointments, but seeing as Gareth Southgate, Paul Ince and Avram Grant all lacked it, the rules are rarely enforced. Oldelpaso (talk) 16:24, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Canadians abroad

Is it true that Canadians outside Canada often wear something with the the Canadian flag on it, so that no one confuses them with Americans? --88.27.176.105 (talk) 12:32, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Yes, or so the joke goes. The joke continues with a story of astute and sensitive American tourists proudly displaying their Canadian flag as well. The real reason is that it is easier to find, and be found by, other Canadian tourists, or simply to show a bit of patriotism, but everyone has an anecdote about this situation, which may or may not be true. Adam Bishop (talk) 12:59, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Dave Foley had a great quote, which I will try to paraphrase here: "I'm Canadian. That's like being an American, but without a gun". I miss the Kids in the Hall. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 18:09, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Heh - and I miss Due South for it's continual series of US vs Canada jokes and situations. Grutness...wha? 23:01, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Those wearing the Maple Leaf are usually Americans with a touching faith in its ability to repel terrorists. (See I Am Canadian for the difference between the countries, seen from north of the border.) Canadians can be identified by the MEC patch they tend to wear, especially when travelling. BrainyBabe (talk) 19:27, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

In my experience, the number of Americans wearing maple leafs in foreign countries is vastly exaggerated. Most of the people you see are in fact Canadians, who are given to the (IMO) somewhat naive notion that Canadians are loved by foreigners as much as Americans are despised. I believe the true feelings of most non-north americans towards Canadians lies much closer to indifference. TastyCakes (talk) 21:52, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

FWIW, as someone living in a country that gets a lot of visitors from both countries, if you're unsure, assume the person is Canadian. Canadians will feel delighted that you've "spotted them correctly", and Americans for the most part don't mind being mistaaken for their northern neighbours 9those that do have usually made it abundantly clear they're from the States anyway). As far as wearing the maple-leaf is concerned, hitchhikers do, I've noticed, but hitch-hikers often temd to wear some sort of "country of origin" identifying feature anyway (the number of German flag patches I've seen over the years...) Grutness...wha? 23:01, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

I just finished watching the movie "In Bruges" in which Collin Farrell punches out two tourists that he believes are American in a restaurant. Upon being arrested, and learning that they were Canadian, he shows remorse. NByz (talk) 02:45, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

On the whole I believe that American tourists (note tourists) are not liked in Europe. Their money is welcome, but so many brash 'yanks' have soured the image for the others. BUT - one has to acknowledge that brash and unwelcome tourists from any country are money welcome only. British and Germans abroad have received much criticism. Canadians seem relativelt few and far between - perhaps any that misbehave are regarded as from the US anyway ?86.202.24.247 (talk) 14:40, 31 December 2008 (UTC)DT

Another factor is the similarity in speech patterns. A random talking Canadian without any country identifiers on their clothing can quite easily be assumed to be a random talking American, until they say words like "about", which to my ears is more like "a boat". The differences between Canadian and American speech are somewhat fewer than those between Australian and New Zealand speech, for example. There are a lot more Americans than Canadians, so the assumption would be reasonable and statistically supportable. -- JackofOz (talk) 00:27, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

Eh? CambridgeBayWeather Have a gorilla 08:19, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

Bush "White House Weekly Review" Emails

The Bush White House has sent out a weekly "White House Weekly Review" email to those who subscribe at least since June 2003. Most times it seems to come on Saturdays, which is how it is advertised here:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/email/

However, I've subscribed since 2003 and found that sometimes the email comes on Fridays or, less frequently, Sundays, and sometimes not at all (the last few weeks).

I've got most of these emails saved in my email account going back to 2003. However, there are significant gaps. And I can't remember if I deleted them some weeks or if they were not sent out from the White House those weeks. So I'm looking for a list of these emails - including the date sent and the subject header.

Now, there is a "Newsletter Archive" website that has these emails available going back to only December, 2006, here:

http://www.newsletterarchive.org/2006/from/White+House+Weekly+Review/

I need them going back to June, 2003.

I'm working on a memoir and I need these emails to fill out the story.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you...

-SM —Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.110.187.23 (talk) 12:37, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Um contact the Whitehouse? Isn't all presidential communication supposed to be a matter of public record anyway Nil Einne (talk) 16:38, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

How to stop a cavity from getting infected?

This question has been removed. Per the reference desk guidelines, the reference desk is not an appropriate place to request medical, legal or other professional advice, including any kind of medical diagnosis, prognosis, or treatment recommendations. For such advice, please see a qualified professional. If you don't believe this is such a request, please explain what you meant to ask, either here or on the Reference Desk's talk page.

This question has been removed. Per the reference desk guidelines, the reference desk is not an appropriate place to request medical, legal or other professional advice, including any kind of medical diagnosis or prognosis, or treatment recommendations. For such advice, please see a qualified professional. If you don't believe this is such a request, please explain what you meant to ask, either here or on the Reference Desk's talk page. --~~~~

TenOfAllTrades(talk) 17:31, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Go to a dentist. Don't mess around. Tempshill (talk) 16:13, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Even if you don't have the time or ability to visit a dentist, you should at least talk to one. We can't offer you medical advice, and in any case you probably shouldn't trust the advice of random strangers from the internet. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 17:31, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

International / U.S. State borders

Where can I learn about the origins of border locations between nations and states? In the United States, I'm interested in finding out why in some places (mostly eastern states) the border follows natural landscape features such as rivers, while in others (mostly western states) the border is a straight line. I know the border between the U.S. and Canada is at the 49th parallel by treaty, but there are some oddities such as north-central Minnesota and a small plot of land in northwest Washington which are part of the U.S. but connected by land only to Canada. Also, West Virginia has a thin strip of land separated from Ohio to the west by a river and Pennsylvania to the east by a straight line. The way these boundaries are drawn sometimes don't make any sense. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.120.95.34 (talk) 16:13, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

• As it turns out, I've got a useful book sitting next to me called, "How the States Got Their Shapes" (ISBN 0061431389). Your question could be an ad for the book. --jpgordon^∇∆∇∆ 16:33, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

As to the US/Canada border, the reason for the oddity at Lake of the Woods, where Minnesota meets Ontario and Manitoba, is as follows. At the end of the AMerican Revolution, the Treaty of Paris (1783) specified the water border as we know it through the Great Lakes and Lake of the Woods and the rivers and lakes connecting them. This ended at "the most northwestern point" of Lake of the Woods" and from there the border was supposed to go due west until it hit the Mississippi River. Unfortunately this was impossible, as the northwest angle of the lake is at 49°23'N while the Mississippi runs south starting from Lake Itasca at only 47°13'N. There are tributaries of the Mississippi, farther west, that do extend far enough north (the Frenchman River or Creek, a tributary of the Milk River, has a source in the Cypress Hills at around 49°45'N), but the treaty-makers didn't mean to count those. They meant the Mississippi proper, but the map they were using simply got the relative positions of the Mississippi and Lake of the Woods wrong.

Later, when this was realized, the 49°N border was established by the Treaty of 1818. This time the treaty-makers wanted to make sure they didn't have an impossible border, so they specified that from the northwest angle of Lake of the Woods the border would run "due North or South, as the Case may be" to reach 49°, and then due west. And this produced the present border. In other words, it forms a weird shape because it was drawn by people who didn't have maps they could trust (and through country that didn't have a lot of settlers already living in it, so their wishes didn't have to be considered). And when it turned out that the north-south border clipped off a peninsula on the west side of the lake, well, that was just too bad.

(Incidentally, it turned out that the 1818 border actually was still impossible, or at least ambiguous. The northwesternmost point of the lake turns out to be at the end of an inlet that runs almost due north from the main part of the lake, with the result that the border within this inlet, as defined in 1818, crosses itself. No land area was affected this time and a later treaty cleared things up.)

As for Point Roberts, it's a similar thing: the Oregon Treaty specified that the 49° border would be continued as far west as the middle of the channel between Vancouver Island and the mainland, nobody had detailed maps that showed that this line clipped off the tip of a peninsula, and there weren't enough people there who would care to worry about it. No doubt the third such anomaly, the Alburg Peninsula in Lake Champlain, arose in the same way when the Treaty of Paris (1783) specified latitude 45°N for that part of the border. (This one is less well known because the lake is narrow enough that the peninsula is easily reached from the US mainland by roads bridging across it.) --Anonymous, 05:07 UTC, December 31, 2008.

"How the States Got Their Shapes" is a pretty good book for this topic, but it is not without mistakes. For example it traces the use of the 42nd parallel to the Nootka Convention, and even explains the reason why the Nootka Convention chose the 42nd parallel--but in fact the Nootka Convention says nothing about the 42nd parallel and the reason given in the book is absurd. Still, for the most part, the book is good. Pfly (talk) 08:19, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Also, see wedge (border). ~AH1^(TCU) 18:44, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

For the rectilinear boundaries of western states, the longitudes were defined from Washington (in at least some cases); what was the exact reference point? —Tamfang (talk) 20:26, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

Before the world settled on a single standard for longitude, different countries used longitudes based on their capital city's observatory. That was where the instruments were whose observations you compared your own against to compute your longitude. (And this is why the standard agreed on for longitude 0 goes through the old Greenwich observatory in London -- of the various standards that were in use, Greenwich was the one that most of the world's shipping was using maps based on.) So if longitudes were being referred to Washington DC, it would be the observatory there: the United States Naval Observatory at its original location in Foggy Bottom. --Anonymous, 10:15 UTC, January 2, 2009.

Was it moved to a clear top? —Tamfang (talk) 06:00, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

[Insert political joke here] --Anonymous, 00:03 UTC, January 6, 2009.

Correct Etiquette of some difficult foods

What is the correct etiquette for eating cherries? Does one put the entire cherry into one's mouth then spit out the seed in the middle? Where does one place it afterwards? Acceptable (talk) 18:13, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

When eating cherrys or olives or other pitted foods, I generally politely spit the pit either into my hand, by bring my hand directly to, and covering, my mouth, and then immediately transfering the pit to the edge of my plate or a napkin, or alternately, you could bring your napkin to your mouth, and deposit the pit that way. Eating pitted fruits means you will ALWAYS have a pit to spit out, the trick is to extricate the pit from your mouth without showing everyone what you are doing. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 18:24, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

For some reason I remember watching a morning news show like Good Morning, America or something and they had an etiquette expert on the show. A similar question was asked of the expert. She basically just said to nonchalantly pull the pit, bit of bone, whatever, out from between your lips and place it on the side of your plate. Trying to hide what you're doing would look silly and childish. Though don't make a production over it such as spitting it out which would be considered vulgar. Dismas|^(talk) 20:19, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

There's a fine line between discretely removing the seed from your mouth, and pretending there's no seed to remove. Pretending is absurd, particularly if the cherries are on the table and everyone's seen you partake of the fruit (and, more than likely, others are doing the same thing). Just use your fingers, as Dismas said. Everyone knows it's a seed, and you don't have to take any special pains to hide it, because it's going to be visible once it gets to the plate anyway. Putting a napkin up to your mouth seems somewhat distasteful to me; it's normally only done when you've put something in your mouth that turns out to be off, or extremely hot, or for whatever reason you need to get rid of it immediately without appearing to spit or vomit. -- JackofOz (talk) 21:26, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

An old joke that my grandmother used to tell in order to discourage swallowing cherry pits:

Mother: Son! You're not swallowing those cherry pits are you?

Son: Of course not mama!

Mother: So what are you doing with them?

Son: (who is seated with a window behind him) I'm throwing them out the window mama!

Mother: The window is closed you stupido .... <fill in the rest>...! hydnjo talk 22:24, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

This says to do it while hiding the pit with your hand as does this. This says to put stuff on a seperate plate. However, my favourite is the 1940 Formal Dinner Etiquette. They suggest using a spoon first or if in the mouth already just remove it. Of course the most fun way involves two people, nudity and no kids around. CambridgeBayWeather Have a gorilla 23:13, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Some etiquette book I read once (I wish I could remember which one it was) said that you should remove a seed, pip, pit, etc. the same way you put it into your mouth. In other words, if you used a fork to insert it, remove it with a fork, if you used your fingers to insert it, remove it with your fingers. Little Red Riding Hoodtalk 23:15, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Uploading picture

I'd like to upload a picture of a chicken that I took myself. I don't care if anyone uses it and I don't care if I'm not given credit. I can't figure out how to upload it on Wikimedia Commons. Can someone help me?--Pufferfish4 (talk) 19:24, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Have you registered on commons? If so, you go to the commons main page and click on "upload file" on the left hand bar. TastyCakes (talk) 20:14, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

I know how to do that. I can't figure out what lisence to use.--Pufferfish4 (talk) 21:55, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

At commons they give you several choice for your own work, any of which is fine. GFDL works fine for wikipedia using it, PD (i.e. agreeing to put it in the Public Domain) lets anyone use it. RJFJR (talk) 22:09, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Converting software

What is a good video converting software where I can at least convert a fifty-second video from .wmv to .avi? A Google search returns no good free ones. 75.169.199.193 (talk) 20:01, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Are you using Windows XP or Vista? If so, have a look at this page: [3]. - Akamad (talk) 21:06, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Oh... I have never thought of that! Thank you (I have Vista and the link does work). 75.169.199.193 (talk) 22:53, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Additional question

I have converted it and upon attempting to place it on my Nikon L18 camera, a message appears stating the file has one or more properties outside the device limits, then encouraging me to use a media program to convert the file... however, the file is already converted to the proper format. If I should place this question on the technology section just say so. Thanks for the help. 75.169.199.193 (talk) 23:15, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Place it on a camera? As in on the built-in memory? AVI videos are uncompressed, it's not inconceivable that it's rather larger than the (23MB) space available. You may need to purchase an SD card. If this is what you're trying to do, then this probably isn't the problem. Angus Lepper^{(T, C, D)} 01:15, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Correct, I am trying to place it on the camera - however, I did compress the AVI video to 13 MB so space is not an issue - perhaps the compression renders it incompatible with the camera? 75.169.199.193 (talk) 01:34, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Check to see that your converted file matches one of the supported modes, which (according the manual on the Nikon site) are -

Image size Frame Rate 
640x480    30 fps
320x240    30 fps
320x240    15 fps

--LarryMac | Talk 17:05, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Lowered the frame rate (640x480 video) to 29, but to no avail. It simply looks like I won't be able to do this, but that's okay. Thanks for all your help. 75.169.208.225 (talk) 20:16, 1 January 2009 (UTC)